AMAZING STORY

Reckless Life Finds New Course

By Christine McWhorter
The 700 Club

CBN.com - “We were fearful in the sense that if we didn’t say the prayers right, or the Quran right, or if weren’t doing the prayers five times a day, My mother was very strict on me and my siblings. I was motivated out of fear,” said Bunty Desor.

Bunty Desor had reason to be afraid. His mother, a Muslim, suffered from mental illness and nothing angered her more than disobedience to the Quran.

“We’d get a – not really a whipping – but a beating if we ate any kind of pork while we were at school. I remember one time, you know, my momma, kicking my brother in the stomach because he had eaten pork at school,”

His father rarely intervened. “He pretty much let mom run the house with Islam.”

Bunty’s mother suffered a nervous breakdown and received treatment. When she finished, she no longer abused him. Bunty used his new found freedom to get attention he had been missing. “When I was 12, I started using drugs and alcohol. Then eventually I got involved in marijuana. I also started getting involved in criminal activity. I was getting attention there I never got before from my peers, and it was fun.”

When he got older and moved out, he discovered a dark and gritty world he knew nothing about. I had never seen prostitution, people scamming, and people manipulating and people getting shot and people getting robbed.”

When he was 19 he had a son, Devin, with his girlfriend. But he didn’t stop his wild lifestyle, and was in and out of jail consistently. “I was arrested 29 times for 49 offenses in Spartanburg, South Carolina. It was for pointing a firearm, discharging a firearm, assault and battery, possession of alcohol by a minor, possession of crack cocaine with intent to distribute.”

But Bunty always managed to get off easy, so he saw no reason to stop. “The thing about selling drugs is there’s a power. There’s a high. There’s a rush. You have the popularity. You have the money. You have the cars. You have the homes. You have the girls, you know? Everybody wants to be like you, so it’s an allure.”

Eventually, his lifestyle caught up with him. He was 20 when he was arrested again for dealing drugs. This time, the judge wasn’t so lenient. “I went to court, and the judge told me that I was a menace to society and he sentenced me to the department of corrections for 16 years. When I got back to that jail cell, I was broken and had never been broken before. But this particular thing, I didn’t see a way out of.”

Then he remembered a story he heard about another drug dealer. O had heard that this individual that was selling drugs had given their life to Christ. And Christ had changed him. And in my heart, I believed that if Christ could do it for him, Christ could do it for me.”

That day Bunty did something he never had before. “I got down on my knees, and I said, ‘Lord Jesus, come into my heart. I know you’re real. I’ve lived for Allah all my life and I’ve gotten nothing but heartache and pain and trouble, and I’m addicted.’ I wanted God to give me a new life. I made a mess out of my life I wanted God to help me through the 16 years. In my mind it was something that I couldn’t do myself. In my mind, I couldn’t walk this journey. I didn’t know what was on the other side and I needed God’s help to get through this difficult time.”

The first thing he did was get a Bible. He had questions because of his Islamic upbringing. “I had some concerns about the deity of Christ. I had some concerns about the trinity of God. There was some places that were gray for me and that I didn’t understand. But I knew that when I went to church and I knew that when I read the word, there was a peace there that I didn’t have anywhere else.”

Over the years he grew in his faith. “In spite of the fact, being in the department of corrections, and seeing people getting stabbed and raped and robbed and all that around me, I found a place in the Word of God, a secret place where I could go, where God would speak to me and where I could have relationship with Him.”

Bunty spent time with other Christian men. He also used the time inside to earn a doctorate in ministry. And while still in prison, he shared his faith with his parents and led both of them to Christ. ”I’m just so blown away-blown away by that to have an opportunity to lead my mother to Christ and to have an opportunity to say the sinners prayer with my father. It just blows me away and gives me a piece in my heart.”

After 14 years Bunty was released. Now married, he and his wife Christy stay busy raising their blended family. As senior pastor of New Life Deliverance Center, he says God has given him a new life.

“I have a brand new lease on life. Old things are passed away. Behold all things become new. He’s given me a brand new start and I’m forever grateful to Him for that.”